06 First Term at San Salvadore (1887-1890)
Chapter 6 FIRST TERM AT SAN SALVADOR.
1887-1890 THE commencement of Mrs. Lewis’s work at San Salvador was mercifully tame in comparison with her adventurous beginnings at Cameroons. The Mission was fairly established. There was a serviceable chapel, attended by a large congregation. Work among the men and boys was well organised, and gave promise of early harvest. Unhappily, almost immediately after the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis, Mr. Weeks, the senior missionary of the station, was compelled to return home. He had remained to the last limits of endurance, and his condition gave rise to grave fears. By the mercy of God he is still fulfilling a distinguished ministry in the service of the Mission. In Messrs. Phillips and Graham, their remaining colleagues, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis found fellow-workers, much to their mind, and the friendships formed in those far back days have known no interruption but that of death. On Friday, December 4, 1887, five candidates whose lives and testimony yielded adequate evidence of their conversion to God, were baptized by Mr. Lewis, and on the following Sunday a Church was formed. The next day Mr. Graham wrote a happy letter to Mr. Baynes, containing the following passage: —
" The names of these five you will doubtless know. They are: Matoko, who was one of the first of Mr. Comber’s friends here; Dom Miguel, the blacksmith; the other three are our own boys — Kivitidi, who was at first Mr. Hartland’s boy; Nlekai, whom many of the friends will remember seeing with Mr. Weeks in England; and Luzemba, who came up from Tunduwa to visit his family here.
" The baptismal service was very impressive. Quite a large number of people gathered to witness the ordinance, and both candidates and onlookers behaved exceedingly well.
" We all felt it to be a great joy yesterday evening to sit down at the Lord’s Table for the first time with native Christians in Congo.
" It seems rather strange that it was just twelve months on Saturday since Mr. Phillips and I came to San Salvador. We could scarcely have hoped that in one year we should enjoy the privilege we had yesterday.
" As we intended to organise a Church, we called together these five, who were to be its first members, a little earlier than our usual time for the Communion Service, that we might explain matters to them. Mr. Phillips told them the nature and some of the principal laws of the Church of Christ, after which we each gave them the right hand of Christian fellowship. As it was my turn to preside at the Communion, I said a few words on the nature of the ordinance before we proceeded to the observance of it. It was indeed a season of hallowed joy." As yet there were no women converts. But from the first Mrs. Lewis realised that she was specially called to be the teacher and evangelist of the women and girls of San Salvador. Her efforts secured quick and encouraging response. Some three months after her arrival the Rev. H. Ross Phillips reports: " Here, at San Salvador, Mrs. Lewis has already gathered a fine class of girls, and a women’s class also. Great interest is being shown by the women in the new work, and evidently it is much appreciated." It may be useful to the reader if at this point I reproduce one or two paragraphs written shortly after Mrs. Lewis’s death. They anticipate the story, but present an outline picture, details of which this and following chapters will supply: —
" The chapel, which also served as school, was a bamboo structure capable of seating some 250 persons. It was well attended on Sundays, men sitting in front and women behind; the women often chattering and inattentive, accounting it ’ a men’s palaver.’ One day, soon after her arrival, a woman came to Mrs. Lewis, saying that she imperfectly understood the teaching in the chapel, and begged that she might come and be taught privately. She was, of course, encouraged. The next week two or three others came with her, and so began Mrs. Lewis’s women’s meeting, which, with its developments, has ever since been one of the most important parts of the work at San Salvador. It was all to the good that the first inquirers were women of some distinction — indeed, wives of the King. Their example encouraged others. Very wisely Mrs. Lewis determined that these meetings should be as informal as possible. The teaching was conducted in conversational fashion. Questions were welcomed and comments solicited. The meetings were held by Mrs. Lewis in her dining-room, the women sitting on the floor, and when the dining-room could not hold them they overflowed into the verandah. Sometimes there were as many as fifty present. But again, wisely, Mrs. Lewis preferred, for her special work, the small class to the large congregation. She could get closer to ten women than to a hundred, and so her inquirers and converts were divided up into many classes, held on different days. As the work developed, and the surrounding districts were reached, the women of each district had their day, and by these means our friend became the teacher, the friend, the confidante of hundreds of African women, who understood something of the love of God as it came to them through her heart.
"While she was acquiring the language her work was done through an interpreter; an intelligent, good lad, who followed her about with absolute devotion and was always at her service. The first converts were men. But a few months after Mrs. Lewis’s arrival at San Salvador two of the King’s wives were baptized, and now for long years there have been more women members than men in the Church at San Salvador. In addition to her women’s classes, Mrs. Lewis conducted, with great success, a large school of girls held in the chapel.
"I am indebted to Mr. Lewis for a time-table of his wife’s day’s work at San Salvador. She rose at 7, breakfasted at 7.30, concerned herself with domestic matters until 9, when the morning service of prayer was held. At 9.30 she dispensed medicines to sick folk, and then came classes for women, which lasted till one o’clock, the dinner hour, followed by an hour’s rest and tea. From 3 to 5 the school occupied her. Once or twice in the week there was a woman’s prayer-meeting from 5 to 6, and the evening hours were filled with domestic duties, writing, and study. A big day’s work for Africa." By a happy coincidence, on the morning of the day which I had set apart for the composition of this chapter, the post brought me a letter from Mrs. Graham of San Salvador. I quote certain apposite sentences. Mrs. Graham had been asking some of the elder women to give account of their earliest remembrances of Mrs. Lewis. " They say that when she came they had got used to white people, and were not afraid of her, but none of the women had come out from heathenism. Her teaching was so convincing, and she so unwearying in her efforts to get hold of them, that they never once doubted the truth of her message, even when threatened with death by the King. Some of these women are still among our most consistent members, and to this day we are reaping the fruit of the thorough training in elementary theology which they received from her. She loved teaching, was devoted to the women and girls, and we learnt from her wise plans of work."
Upon arrival at San Salvador, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis took up their residence in the grass-house, which was available — a good enough house of its kind, but leaving much to be desired both as to comfort and accommodation. Mr. Lewis, like his friend George Grenfell, was a practical man, who had been taught to work in iron, and knew, half by instinct, how to work in wood and stone. Immediately he set himself to build a more solid, spacious home for his wife, and on November 5, 1887, this important addition to the Mission properties in San Salvador was completed, and Mrs. Lewis proudly took possession of a house which afforded better facilities for the ordered housekeeping and evangelical hospitality to which, by nature and by grace, she was inclined.
Mr. Lewis’s " right-hand man " in this building business was his " boy " Kivitidi. And here some particulars concerning Kivitidi, who will often appear in the story, may be compendiously set down. He had been one of John Hartland’s boys. From his much-loved and lamented master he had received the seeds of truth and book-learning, and good measure of instruction in manual work. From the first he became much attached to Mr. Lewis, and when he was informed that Mrs. Lewis had formerly been engaged to John Hartland, he said he " knew all about her," and thereafter was her devoted servant too. His regard was reciprocated, and his master and mistress were his truest friends.
Yet Mrs. Lewis finds it in her heart to laugh at him, a fact which is no-wise to his discredit. For surely she never had a friend from whom her bright humorous spirit would not derive amusement as well as other and more momentous benefits. When the house was roof high, Kivitidi had to work at an unwonted elevation, and Mrs. Lewis gives a quaint account of his obvious tremors. But when Mr. Phillips was about to be married in San Salvador, some months later, Kivitidi once more suffered tremors. His own matrimonial projects were ripening, and he requested that the Christian marriage service should be explained to him. Mrs. Lewis complied with his request. Whereupon he owned himself appalled at the thought of having " to promise all that in the presence of all the people." However, like many another of his sex, when the day came, he "screwed his courage to the sticking-point," and promised " all that."
Prior to his marriage, he built a house for himself, in the vicinity of his master’s, so fine a house that it excited the dangerous envy of the King; for was it not the finest native house in Congo? Within a year of the building of his own house, Kivitidi was engaged in erecting a temporary mission chapel in Etoto, and became the first teacher of the first sub-station of our Congo Mission. Later, a son was born to him, whom he named "John Hartland," and it was one of the trials of the young mother, that she found her baby’s name exceedingly difficult to pronounce. Probably she quickly discovered a manageable working substitute. The young interpreter referred to above was Nlekai, who was devoted to Mrs. Lewis, her instructor in the native language, and her indispensable attendant in her labours among the women. Confessing her profound obligations to him, she yet yearned for the time when she would be able to dispense with at least one important part of his service. This yearning is incidentally expressed in a letter written to Miss Hartland on January 25, 1888, a letter which exhibits her work among the women in process of evolution.
" The women’s meeting on Monday is not well attended except by the elder girls. I have usually an attendance of from thirty to forty, but not more than two or three of the town women. I long so to be able to talk to them in their own language, though Nlekai does his best, and really takes an interest in making them understand. But many matters come up from time to time which it is awkward to speak about through a boy. Not that these women are particular, but it is bad for the boy. I have another class now, which I think will become regular. A few Sundays ago three or four of the King’s wives, and several other women, came on Sunday afternoon, directly after dinner, saying, they wanted to hear more of God’s palaver. This is my resting-time, but, of course, I could not send them away. They said they would like to come every Sunday at the same hour, and they have come several times. Two or three of them are, I believe, earnestly seeking the way of salvation. It is very hard for them to understand even the simplest truths.... I do feel for them! They are so surrounded by filth of every kind."
Kivitidi and Nlekai are spoken of as "boys." In truth they were young men; and as early as October, 1887, Mrs. Lewis has occasion to correct the mistaken impression which the designation " boys " has made upon the minds of certain of her friends. They have sent out shirts which are pitifully scant, and are implored to remember that the " boy " Kivitidi is as big as Mr. Lewis. Three months later she has to plead for bigger dresses for the " girls." Of the sixty " girls " in her school, two-and-twenty are married women, some of them with two or three children; and when the school examination is held the writing prize is taken by one of the King’s wives. The sympathetic appreciation which the " boys " received from the woman whom they all revered is indicated in the following luminous and discerning passage, which occurs in a letter written in November, 1888, to Mrs. Hartland: —
" I will give the boys the things as you say. Thank you very much for putting in something for Nlekai. He has no one in England who sends him things, and he is such a good boy; a real earnest Christian worker, who has been my greatest help all round. He spends two evenings with me every week, one helping me with Kongo translation, while on Saturday he receives a Bible-lesson. We are going through the Epistles together, and I am also teaching him English at odd times. He is so very anxious to learn. He goes with me when I visit in the town, and until just now has done all my interpreting. Since Kivitidi’s foot has been bad, Nlekai has been doing part of his work for him, and now that Kivitidi is resuming his work, I am going to take Elembe to translate for me on Sundays so as to set Nlekai free. During the last year and a half he has had a thorough drilling by means of interpreting and visiting, and we think he will make a first-rate evangelist, though of a kind greatly different from Kivitidi. They are not in the least alike. Kivitidi has not the slightest fear of man, and for speaking to chiefs and big men, or addressing a congregation, he is far the better of the two. But Nlekai is our ’ Barnabas,’ and goes so nicely in and out of the houses and among women and sick people. Mr. Phillips is going to spare him one day from school, and he is to have a district to work twice a week. We pray that these two may have a great blessing and do much good. Matata, I think you know, is helping Nlekai with day school, and Mrs. Phillips with the language. So we hope that in time both he and Elembe will be able to work on their own account. Helping us is a capital training for them."
Though the work of Mrs. Lewis among the women of San Salvador prospered from the beginning, it was not without its vicissitudes, and she was not without her hours of depression. In a letter addressed to Mrs. J. Jenkyn Brown, dated May 15, 1888, she confesses that just before Christmas she was tempted to give up her Monday class for the town women, as on several occasions only one came. But at the time of writing she is able to report most encouraging progress. Her day school is increasing rapidly. From twenty to twenty-five of the town women attend the Monday class, besides a number of the school-girls who remain. " Then the women came of their own accord on Sunday afternoon to my house to hear more, and this has become a regular institution. On Fridays I have only the Church members, and on Saturdays any who are inquiring the way of salvation. There are now five of the King’s wives awaiting baptism, and several other women of whom I have great hopes. So you see we have much reason to rejoice in the blessing of God, and to take courage for the future. We might baptize many more, but we feel the need of great care. A little waiting will not hurt them, if they are sincere; and meanwhile we are able to watch their lives and instruct them further. It is so easy for these people to make a profession and to make long prayers. It is another thing for them to give up their bad country customs and to lead pure lives." This letter will probably raise a question in the mind of the reader, which was raised in the mind of Mrs. Lewis’s correspondent. Writing some months later to Mrs. Brown, she says, " I am not surprised that you should think it strange to hear of some of the wives of the King being baptized. But as far as the women are concerned, they cannot leave their husbands, if they would, and therefore this could hardly be made a condition of baptism or Church membership. As to the other side, it is a very vexed question, and I am not at all sure that the position we have taken up as a Mission is the best. But the matter was virtually settled before we came here. There are so many opinions upon the subject that it is difficult to say which is right, in the absence of any absolute command. Of course, we do not allow Church members to take any more wives than they have already, and those not married can only take one wife."
Having attempted to give the reader some general idea of Mrs. Lewis’s work among women during the earlier period of her labours in San Salvador, I proceed to make some rapid notes of events in due sequence culled from diaries and letters. In June, 1887, the missionaries took their modest part in the Imperial Jubilee rejoicings, though they mistook the date, and on June 6th instead of June 22nd, Mr. Lewis dipped the flag, and in the absence of big guns Mr. Phillips fired salutes with his revolver.
Little more than a month later the Mission was plunged into depths of sorrow by news which afflicted every Christian worker on the Congo, and sent a thrill of intense pain through thousands of Christian hearts at home. The diary records: —
"Saturday, July 16, 1887. — Had a very slight fever last night. While at school letters came telling of the death of Tom Comber. What can it all mean?
" Sunday, July 17th. — Had a very sorrowful and solemn Sunday. Mr. Phillips spoke in the morning, Tom in the afternoon."
Mr. Comber had many friends, but none of them regarded him with more affectionate reverence than Gwen Lewis, and her remembrance of him was vivid, and tender, and sacred, until the day on which she died at sea, as he had died.
Many minor illnesses are recorded, and in a letter dated January 25, 1888, Mrs. Lewis remarks that her schoolgirls get holidays when she is sick, but none other. Even these are ill-esteemed, and the scholars are painfully eager for the resumption of their work. In the same letter reference is made to a case of more than local interest. A man of some education obtained an interview with Mr. Lewis, and expressed a wish that his wife, who was a scholar in the school, might be taught to obey her husband. Mr. Lewis stated that such obedience was taught as a general principle, but that a particular application of the principle could not be insisted upon until the nature of the case was known; for if a husband commanded his wife to do a bad thing she ought not to obey him. The applicant did not specify the trouble, but said he came, fearing that he might grow angry and beat her, and that she might carry tales about him. Later it was ascertained that he desired her to leave Mrs. Lewis and go to the priests’ school. This desire was not fulfilled.
" Monday, April 23, 1888 (Diary).— A big palaver between the King and our Mission. He wants our people to build their houses in another part of the town. They are to answer to-morrow. Such a number of women at my meeting to-day.
" Tuesday, April 24th. — School as usual. Palaver with King finished and all serene. He sent Tom and Mr. P. a grand stick each. Sat up very late to finish mails for up-country." At the end of May four of the King’s wives were baptized, and Kivitidi was set apart for the work of an evangelist by the infant Church which undertook to support him.
Some three months later Mr. and Mrs. Lewis accompanied by Matoko, Kivitidi, Elembe, and three girls made an important journey to Madimba, a large district to the south and south-east of San Salvador, with a view to discover some place which would be suitable for the establishment of a new station. The little expedition started early on August 18, 1888. Mrs. Lewis wrote notes of the journey, and we come up with the travellers as they are on the point of leaving Nsoni at noon August 20th.
" We started again at 1 p.m., crossed the Lunda River, where was a bridge of one stick, passed two small towns, and arrived at Kiunga at 2.50. The chief was not ready to receive us, so we sat down outside an empty house and waited patiently. The cause of the delay was the fact that, never having seen a white man in his town before, the chief was much frightened, and sent for his fighting men, who were assisting a neighbouring chief. He appeared at last surrounded by men with guns, but in obvious perplexity as to what our visit could mean.
" He was a most picturesque figure; an oldish man with an extraordinary head-dress, wearing his cloth arranged in a fashion which reminded us of the pictures of Aaron. He quite jumped when Tom offered to shake hands. Tom told him that we had come to speak to him about God, and all that we desired of him was a house to sleep in, and permission to speak to his people. I felt quite sorry for the old man; for between his fear of offending the white man, and his caution against falling into a trap, he did not know what to do. Tom somewhat allayed his fears by pointing to me as a proof that he had come on a peaceful errand. Finally it was agreed that we should have the house we were sitting against, and that the people should come to hear our message when the moon was up.
" At the time appointed the chief and his men came, fully armed, but said that the women were afraid. When we had given our message, they were much relieved, and afterwards a number of women came saying that they wished to hear too; so I sat outside my house for some time talking to them. The next morning chief and people pressed us to stay, and upon learning that we could not do so, said that as none of our party had done any bad palaver they would like to see a white man again. We were much interested in the Kiunga people, but decided that it would be premature to consider the planting of a station there just now.
"It was late and hot when we started, but I was comfortable and well shaded in my hammock. I had to alight twice in this stage of our journey as we came to rivers through which the men could not carry me. One passage was very awkward, the ’ bridge ’ consisting of two pieces of stick which extended only half-way across, and that under water instead of over it. I took off shoes and stockings, waded to the end of the bridge, which was frightfully slippery, and was carried on two men’s shoulders the rest of the way. Soon afterwards we reached Lunda.
"This is a large town, but the people are the most unpleasant we have met with — dirty, drunken, very much afraid of us, yet so full of curiosity that they did not leave us for one minute in peace. There are two chiefs here. One had just started out to bury his brother. He was called back, and did not venture forth again until we had gone. In the evening a crowd assembled to hear what we had to say, but our speech made no impression, and they went away, evidently saying in their hearts, ’ Is that all? ’ There were about a hundred and fifty present, and many of the men were half drunk. The house they gave us was filthy, and full of cockroaches — you know how I love them — and we were not sorry to depart next morning.
"August 21st. — Our journey to-day was short, and we arrived at Etoto about 11.30. This is a large town for Congo, containing about four hundred inhabitants, nicely situated on the top of a high hill slightly indented in the middle. We waited some little time for the coming of the chief, who seems rather an agreeable man, quiet and less important in his own eyes than most of these petty rulers are. He gave us one of his houses, or rather part of one, built of planks. We ventured to peep in at the other part, and found it full of old chairs, images of nkixi, and dreadful rat-holes, so we thought it expedient not to ask for the loan of that. The rats held high revels at night and seriously disturbed our slumbers.
"We discovered in this place a wife of the King of San Salvador, who was sick, one of my schoolgirls, and two schoolboys, who afforded us something of an introduction. The people were shy but friendly, and we quickly decided that this was the place we were seeking, if only the people were willing. Tom spoke to the chief men about the matter, saying that we should like to come often to teach the children to read, and to give them all some knowledge of God; asking them also if they would be willing for us to build a house for these purposes. At first they could hardly believe him. It seemed too good to be true. But being assured that we were in earnest, they said, in African fashion, that ’ they would drink water,’ i.e., consider the matter, and tell us next day.
" In the morning they declared that they would much like us to come, and we went with the chief to seek a site for our house and school. We chose a good one on the highest point of the hill, with a fine view across country to Arthington Falls. This settled, we returned to our house. I went to visit the King’s wife, and after ’ chop ’ I held a large meeting of women outside her house. There were some fifty or sixty present who had remained away from their farms on purpose. Then the men came, desiring to hear, and Tom had a long talk with them. In the evening two women came, asking to hear more, and after discussing matters with Matoko and Kivitidi we went to bed.
" August 24th. — To-day we started homewards, made a long journey, and had much trouble in getting through a very bad marsh. Once I was landed comfortably on the branch of a tree, and my hammock could not be moved one way or the other until Kivitidi came to the rescue with his long arms and legs. Our stray sheep (schoolchildren) came with us from Etoto. We slept at Nkala, a miserable little town, chief away, few people, and no opportunity for speaking. The next morning, August 25th, we left early, made a long march over the hills, and arrived at San Salvador at 11 p.m. We had a warm welcome, and found all well."
Mr. Lewis hoped, with the aid of Kivitidi, to commence building at Etoto in the course of a few weeks, but a series of misadventures and adversities postponed the work until the new year, and even then the evangelist had to make the start without the missionary’s personal oversight and direction. In September the marriage of Mr. Phillips to Miss Phillips was the occasion of glad excitement in San Salvador. It was intended that the marriage should take place at Underbill, but legal difficulties arose, as the parties were to reside in Portuguese territory. The interest of the event was increased by the presence of Mr. Holman Bentley, who was paying a short visit. Mrs. Lewis records: " September 18th, Tuesday. — Up early, went to the Resident’s first, where the civil marriage was performed between Mr. and Miss Phillips, then came back and went to the chapel, which Tom and Mr. Bentley had decorated beautifully. Tom performed the ceremony, Mr. Bentley giving the bride away. The Resident, with Messrs. Pereiro and Dumas, came home to breakfast, and afterward we had our photos taken. Mr. Bentley left." A few weeks later occurs another entry which the reader will be expecting. " October 31st, Wednesday. Had breakfast in our bedroom early. Wedding of Kivitidi and Tomba in chapel at 11 a.m.; then ’feed’ at our house, and festivities all day. Mr. and Mrs. Phillips stayed to tea, and spent the evening. All went off well."
It was a grievous disappointment to all concerned that Mrs. Phillips, who commenced her missionary work with glad eagerness and no little aptitude, soon suffered serious illness, and in the earlier part of January she and her husband were compelled to leave for England.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Lewis has advanced so far in her mastery of the language that she finds herself making some modest literary ventures, of which she gives an amusing account in a letter dated December 29, 1888. It is not wonderful, perhaps, that her appreciation of the language was not as enthusiastic as that of the man whose stupendous labours were reducing it to literary form. Mrs. Lewis writes to Miss Hartland: " I do not wonder that you are amused by the look of the Congo hymns. It is a very ugly language, I think, in sound and appearance. But Holman Bentley thinks it lovely. It is as the red rag to the bull if one disparages this language to him. When he was here, I was wicked enough to remark that I thought it very unmusical, whereupon he replied, in severe tones: ’ It has all the elements of a beautiful language.’ The poetical mania has taken us all just now. The big boys are hard at work translating hymns. The trouble is to understand the English first, and then to get the right number of syllables. Some of their verses are not bad, others are most amusing, and require a great deal of puckering to get them in. I have just finished ’ There is a Happy Land,’ and our old hymn which we used to sing at Mr. Tucker’s Bible-class, ’ Children, will you go? ’ Mr. Phillips and Tom are both at it. We shall have quite a San Salvador Supplement soon. But though the number of the hymns will be considerable, I will not say much for the quality. Yet they please the people, and will serve until a native poet arises." In the same letter she tells of how the commencement of the projected station at Etoto has once more been delayed by an outbreak of smallpox. The people of the town, in their distress, much to the regret of the missionaries, and without their knowledge, sent for a witch doctor. He came. But the fear of the white man’s influence was strong upon him, and, with admirable shrewdness, he affimed that the witch was one of the people who had died of the pestilence, and having given this judgment, departed with discreet alacrity. Other troubles caused further delay, but at the end of January Kivitidi and Matoko started for Etoto to begin to build. As the steady strain of the work and the inevitable trials of the climate were telling upon Mrs. Lewis, it was thought desirable in the early part of the year that, somewhat later, she should return and make a short stay in England. At the end of March she writes cheerily of the abandonment of this scheme, and of the possible substitution of a short visit to Madeira. She reports that Padre Barosa has written promising great reinforcements for the Catholic Mission at San Salvador, which she surmises will prove "mythical," as in other instances. The work at Etoto is making good progress. She also casually mentions that a leopard has located himself "just outside our fence," is raiding the live-stock of the Mission, but, to her great regret, is too clever to be seen. On April 20, 1889, Mrs. Lewis wrote a circular letter to be read in certain Sunday schools with which the mission maintained correspondence. It is too informing and suggestive to be omitted, and too long to be reproduced in full. So I give it in slightly condensed form.
" I suppose many of you have read in the Missionary Herald of the little branch station which we have established at a town called Etoto, two days’ journey from San Salvador. Mr. Lewis visited Etoto about a month ago, and found the work going on well under the care of Kivitidi, our native evangelist. The services on Sunday and daily evening prayers are well attended, and thirty boys come regularly to school. As yet no girls have been induced to come. But as soon as the dry season arrives, I hope to pay them a visit with my husband, and then I have no doubt we shall get some girls to attend school. Mr. Moolinaar has just been spending a month there, and has visited some towns of the district. The school-house, with rooms for native teacher and missionary, is nearly finished. Please think of this new station and pray that many of the people may be brought to know and love our Lord Jesus Christ....
" The town Nlekai goes to on Sundays is called Mbanza Mputu and is about one and a half hour’s walk distant. The townspeople have received the good news very gladly, and have themselves built a little meeting-house, that the rains may not stop them from hearing ’ God’s palaver.’ My husband has visited them several times, and they have been anxious to see me, as white women are scarce in this part of the world. As there is a deep river to be crossed on the road, I sent word that if they wished to see me they must make a bridge. They have done this; and last week I went with Nlekai.
" I was heartily welcomed. All the people came together, and I talked to them for a long time about the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; after which, the chief and other people asked many questions. They are very fond of singing, and know two or three hymns already; so we sang all they knew and I taught them another, ’ Oh, what a Saviour! ’ which has been translated by one of our boys. Then I walked about the town and saw some sick people, everybody being anxious to know when I would come again.
" Before I left they told me that in a town not far away a witch palaver was to be held in three days’ time. Many people had been sick and had died. A witch doctor had pointed out a certain woman as the witch. She was to undergo the trial by poison. But being very angry they had determined that she should surely die. The chief and the people of Mbanza Mputu had tried to prevent this wickedness, but their protests were not listened to, and they wished to know if we could do anything. I promised to tell my husband. He started off the next day and arrived just in time to stop the cruel deed. There was a long discussion, and at last they agreed not to harm the woman. Mr. Lewis then told them something about God, to which they listened attentively, and afterwards begged him to come and teach them again. So you see, their wicked purpose is likely to turn out for the spread of the Gospel. The people at Mbanza Mputu have long ago thrown away their fetishes, and we hope that many of them may soon become true servants of God.
"When you are thinking about us out here, do not forget Nlekai and his work. He has just become engaged, though he will not be married for some years yet, and I think you may like to know how he got his future wife. Among the bad fashions of this dark land, one of the worst is, that men have many wives. The richer a man is the more wives he gets. Men buy little girls when they are quite small, and soon take them away to live with their other wives. Very often the little girls do not like to be taken away from their own families, but if they make a fuss they are beaten and tied and carried off.
"Well, the little girl whom Nlekai is to marry had been given by her family to a man who had ten wives already. He had bought a wife from the same family before. She had died, and so they gave him Bwingidi instead. She had been attending my school for some time, but her mother died, and soon after this man came to take her away. One Sunday, just as we had finished our morning service, she came running to us, begging to be allowed to stay, as she did not like the man, and did not wish to go where there was no school or teacher. He had come to fetch her the day before, but she had run away, had remained all night in the bush, and now they were looking for her.
" The next day all her people came; but when the ’husband’ saw Bwingidi here, and dressed like the other girls, he said he did not want her, now that she had been living in the white man’s house, but he wanted the money which he had paid to her family for a wife. So we settled the matter by paying the price on condition that her family made her perfectly free, and they signed a paper putting her in our charge till she married. She is a bright girl of eleven or twelve years, and now it has been arranged that she is to be Nlekai’s wife when she grows up....
" We have now another member of our mission family, a baby boy about five months old. His mother having died, his father left him with some women, and cared no more for him. No one could be found to nurse him. So he was just flung into the corner of a dirty house to starve. When my husband brought him to me, he was so weak that he could not move nor even cry, and had a great boil on his neck. However, after being washed and fed, he slept well, and in a day or two could kick and scream finely. He is getting on well now, though he has many ailments, the effects of his ill-treatment. We call him ’ Daniel ’ and hope he will grow up to be good and brave like his namesake.
"Now I have told you all these things that you may know how the little children suffer in this country, and how much the people need to be taught about the Lord Jesus, Who loved little children...."
Mrs. Lewis’s estimate of her staying power indicated in the March letter proved to be over-sanguine, and in June she was sent of to England, where she arrived in August, having made a visit to the Cameroons on the voyage. Naturally she was warmly welcomed by many friends and found refreshment and inspiration in the renewal of former associations. Her stay was brief, and in November she sailed for Africa in the "SS. Mexican", accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Graham, newly married, and Mr. Walter Stapleton, of whose character she formed a penetrating estimate, wholly justified by his notable, but all too short career. She much enjoyed the voyage and took kindliest interest in the conversations of the two young men, who sharpened their wits by the discussion of high points of doctrine, and essayed to settle minor questions (of course without prejudice and upon adequate data), such as "whether dark girls or fair ones were the pluckiest." The voyagers were met by Mr. Lewis and Mr. Weeks at Banana, and received a tumultuous welcome at Underbill, whither Mr. Lewis had been constrained to bring all the girls of the household, having no one to take charge of them in his absence. He also brought Daniel Jones, the one-time squalid, sickly, outcast baby, who in a few months had developed into a sleek, tiny tyrant who imagined that the world was made for him and "wanted to be king of everybody." A still more touching welcome awaited Mrs. Lewis at San Salvador. The women were overjoyed by her return. They abandoned their work for the day, and for days to come kept bringing her presents, not " dashes " to be returned, but free gifts, "because they saw plenty joy."
It was " plenty joy " to Mrs. Lewis also to be in her own home again, which her husband had furbished and improved during her absence, and she looked for another year of work before the long vacation of the proper furlough. But Providence ordered otherwise. Mr. Lewis’s health failed, and within six months they were on their way to England. The following paragraph from the Missionary Herald of July, 1890, may fitly close this chapter: —
"We are thankful to report the arrival of the Rev. Thos. and Mrs. Lewis from San Salvador. For some months past Mr. Lewis has suffered greatly from repeated and severe attacks of bilious fever with strongly marked typhoid symptoms, which have greatly reduced his strength and rendered an immediate change absolutely needful. For nearly four years Mr. Lewis has been resident on the Congo without change."